Hennepin County Veterans Court (Fourth Judicial District)

The Fourth Judicial District Court and Hennepin County started Veterans Court in July 2010. It serves veterans charged with a criminal offence who are struggling with addiction, serious mental illness or both, in a coordinated programme of 12 to 18 months: judicial reviews and intensive probation supervision with a team led by the judge, the VA's health care and benefits staff, Hennepin County Veterans Services and volunteer veteran mentors. The court. Judge Amber Brennan presides on Mondays at 9:30 and 10:15 a.m. in Courtroom C-857 of the Hennepin County Government Center, 300 South Sixth Street, Minneapolis. A defendant referred to any Hennepin treatment court goes through one triage screening by a panel of social workers and probation officers, which decides eligibility. The coordinator is Grace Spearman, through the court's email link. The court publishes no discharge test. The statute behind it. Minn. Stat. 609.1056, the deferral for service members, lets a defendant who was or is a member of the United States military, charged with a misdemeanour, a gross misdemeanour or a felony ranked at severity level 7 or lower, ask before sentencing to be found eligible. If the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant has sexual trauma, a traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse or a mental health condition, that it stems from service, and that the offence resulted from it, then on a finding of guilt it defers further proceedings and places the defendant on probation without entering a judgment of guilt (a second felony deferral is at the court's discretion). At the end of probation the court must dismiss the case if it finds by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant complied, completed the ordered treatment, is not a danger to others and has benefited enough that dismissal is in the interests of justice, after hearing any victim. Subdivision 5 lets a county or district supervise that probation through a veterans treatment court such as this one. No discharge test appears in the section.